Bottle-feeding before bed time may increase risk of childhood asthma

Nearly one in 13 children in America has asthma. The National Institutes of Health reports that the prevalence of asthma around the world has doubled in the last 15 years, increasing 160 percent among pre-school age children. Asthma is the third leading cause of hospitalization among children under age 15 and accounts for more than 10 million missed school days annually. Researchers found that bottle feeding in the bed or crib before sleep time during the first year of life was a risk factor for asthma and recurrent wheezing at five years of age. It also appeared to be a risk factor for wheezing between the ages of one to five years. “For infants in a high-risk group, we found that when and how they are fed influence the onset of wheezing and asthma,” said Juan Celedon of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “There is a significant relationship between the number of times children are bottle fed in the crib or bed prior to sleep time and the occurrence of wheezing during their first five years.”